Tits Sensorium: Voyeur Voyage
Holes on paper with assorted scents, sounds, and jelly beans. 840mm x 297mm.
An appropriation of Tate Britain’s Tate Sensorium, this artwork aims to evoke an emotional reaction from the audience by utilising the five senses. The four panels contain scenes of couples in various stages of intimacy. Formed by markings left by puncturing pins on paper, this allows audience to get up close with the artwork for a clearer picture of the and examine it in an intimate manner that borders on voyeurism; a personal involvement when interacting with the artwork that at the same time breaches the privacy of the couples by touching them. The holes are arranged in a way where the audience needs to get closer to the artwork to see the whole image. Jelly beans in diverse flavours backed by different scents as well as soundtracks create different moods for each panel.
The artwork aims to explore the circle of relationship when interacting with other people. The space between others and yourself depends on the extent of how you allow them to enter this circle. The more comfortable you are with a person, the nearer the distance between that person and you when interacting. The panels are placed directly next to each other to break this circle we draw; compelling the audience to view the artwork together, in close contact, with another person.
Images are arranged in order of appearance, left to right.
The first panel wants to recreate the setting of two lovers in the field. It uses sound of summer fields and the fresh scent of dewy grass. I used a recording found online here. The scent is mimicked by using Maison Martin Margiela’s Untitled perfume and rubs of patchouli wax.
The second is an intimate session between two lovers. It has the heady scent of musk and sandalwood, achieved by rubbing Marks & Spencer’s Woodspice talcum powder and Body Shop’s White Musk oil. Soundtrack used is the song True by Spandau Ballet.
The third panel is Netflix and Chill; NSA (no strings attached) fun in a dingy apartment. A recording of the American sitcom Community is being mashed with ambient noise of an apartment. It smells of Body Shop’s White Rose perfume and lavender home deodorant.
The final panel evokes the feeling of a drunken stupor, reeking of beer and cigarettes (soaking and rubbing the scent with damp cloth), to the soundtrack below:
Process:
Initially I wanted to set up individual stations in front of the panels with bowls of jellybeans and headphones for sounds. However I do not have the resources to do so (I wanted to use earpieces but realised the hygiene hazards; some people are not comfortable with putting earpieces of strangers into their ears, and changed to headphones the night before the presentation). So I used a laptop to play the sounds instead, which I find to be as not as effective as it would be with a headphone as some of the more subtle sounds couldn’t be heard when played.
